IBM Grows eServer Family With 1U Server

IBM Tuesday announced additions to its eServer family. A powerful and affordable, thin 1U (1.75") server and a series of server appliances that can provide up to a five-fold increase in the speed of delivering Web content to end users will join the current eServer product line.

The new IBM eServer xSeries 300 is described as a high-volume, entry-level thin server that aims to address two key concerns of many enterprises -- space and budget. It carries a price tag of less than $1,500, and is well-suited for easy expansion of Web and network infrastructures with room to support two fixed hard drives.

IBM Tuesday announced additions to its eServer family. A powerful and affordable, thin 1U (1.75") server and a series of server appliances that can provide up to a five-fold increase in the speed of delivering Web content to end users will join the current eServer product line.

The x300 builds on the industry-leading technology of the x330, the first 1U server capable of packing two Intel Pentium III processors and resulting in more than 2 Gigahertz of power being provided in a single system.

The x300 supports IBM''s Project eLiza initiative, a multibillion-dollar program launched in late-April (see IBM Aims for Self-Maintaining Servers) to create self-managing servers that require little or no human interaction so that global computing networks will be as easy to manage as kitchen appliances.

The x300 also features IBM Director and Software Rejuvenation, a systems management package that includes advanced self-healing computing tools that can help predict and repair software failures before they happen.

IBM also introduced a series of Internet Caching Appliances designed to deliver a performance increase of up to five times that of the fastest Web response time currently available. Frequently visited Web pages are stored on the appliance where they can be quickly accessed.

These new appliances also help reduce overall Internet traffic. IBM believes that by incorporating theses appliances into e-business infrastructures, enterprises will save money because of the reduced bandwidth.

The eServer Internet Caching Appliances are designed to allow enterprises to easily add on media streaming and content filtering technologies.

The Appliances use Volera''s Excelerator 2.0 caching engine. They offer a "headless" design that requires no keyboard, mouse or monitor and are powered by Intel''s Pentium III 866 MHz processors.

The new Appliances comes in six models, ranging from a 1U thin-server workgroup model capable of handling up to 5,000 requests per second to a 3U enterprise rack model that can handle up to 15,000 requests per second. Tower and Department models are also available.

In addition, IBM unveiled two new ServeRAID controllers for Intel-based systems. The IBM ServeRAID-4Lx Ultra160 and ServeRAID-4Mx Ultra160 each feature an Intel GC 80303 100MHz processor and 66MHz PCI controller. Both ServeRAID controllers are designed to optimize performance in mission-critical RAID data storage applications as well as deliver performance, scalability and control for entry-level and midrange storage environments.